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Panic in Florida
So I’m driving into my favorite Publix store, and I’m startled to see tons of cars. Generally this particular lot barely has any cars at any time of the day. Gosh, I assume, they must be restocking after the holiday. Then it hits me: hurricane panic is on!
Mind you, I live in Poinciana, FL, the center of the state in both directions. (Oh no, oh no! It’s now a category 5!) We’re supposed to have a hurricane supply packed up, right? But, no-o-o-o-o! That would be too sensible. Meanwhile, I’m out of sugar and all the 10-pound bags are gone.
We are at least a week away from a potential hurricane. I’ll admit that I’ve never been in one, but my instincts tell me that panicking is not going to have any effect on what hits here. But if I’m going to live in Florida, this is probably the safest place to be. No more grocery shopping for me this week!
Maybe I should go to Texas?
Published in General
Stay safe, Susan.
I’ve been 150 miles from the coast and still had a hurricane wallop the town where I was living. No power for a week was the worst part. It was amazing how the town came together and cleaned up so that within a couple of weeks nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
Chainsaws are magical instruments in the right hands.
Just back from the big box home supply store in North Florida, no panic, plenty busy. Plastic sheeting still available, I got mine. Always good to have, somebody always needs it if we get hit. Tarps cleaned and checked.
Watchful waiting. Lots of batteries for the radio. This’ll be my sixteenth, if it hits here. If you think you’ll need to bug out, do it early.
Wow!! That’s a lot of hurricanes, mezzrow! And the point is, here you are to talk about it. I love the people here who are doing their best to take it all in stride. Be safe!
Only one or two direct hits, but they all mess up your life. Tom Petty is from Gainesville after all, and he was right about these things – the waiting is the hardest part. Avoid panic stricken local news media and keep your eye on the NOAA reports and the storm surge estimate maps. If the surge says you need to leave, do it early. Get your bugout kit ready now. Make sure you have a battery radio that works, flashlights, lots of batteries and lots of water if you stay. Get ready to grill everything in everybody’s freezer and share with your neighbors at some point. Fill up the cars now, but don’t do it again until you need it.
We are getting a very bad storm here on Cape Cod right now. It’s supposed to last at least 24 hours, which is plausible given the number of storm bands showing up on the weather maps. Yesterday the clouds were moving extremely fast through the sky. And the rain is heavy and unrelenting.
What a strange weather year this has been.
It’s no surprise to see three hurricanes depicted on the National Hurricane Center map: Katia, Irma, and Jose. It’s a very unsettled, and unsettling, atmosphere out there.
We’ve had rain, some light, some heavy, every day for weeks. Saves me having to water the outside plants. I’m not looking forward to lugging my orchids and the benches they stand on into the house. And a heavy round metal table and chairs. Don’t need any metal missiles entering through the windows.
Yep. The price we pay for our “outdoor rooms.” I have a little routine going now. Plants in, umbrellas down, check for possible projectiles, . . .
Interesting. Just now there is a plane going overhead. It has to be flying on instruments.
I was popular.
For a few days anyway.
I feel bad for the Turks and Caicos. They are forecast to have a storm surge of 15 to 20 feet. They are basically sandbars. I don’t think they have any land higher than 20 feet.
Wow. That’s bad.
We need a national prayer moment for the Caribbean Islands. If all of us 360 million Americans send up a prayer all together, maybe Whoever is controlling the weather will hear us. :)
Meanwhile, Montana is burning down and nobody’s noticing.
Edit: Although we did have a nice red afternoon sun here in Wisconsin the other day from all the smoke in the atmosphere from the fires out west.
Unfortunately, fires at this time of year may seem somewhat routine to people–not nearly as sensational as hurricanes. Yet terrible losses to lots of people.
When you went thru 3 hurricanes in a few months (The eyes all intersected about 50 miles north of where I lived) and you no longer live on the coast but 60 miles from the ocean. Its hard to worry about the storm when it’s going to make landfall hundreds of miles from where I live. Granted I have only been thru cat 1 winds. Now if I was living in the beach a barrier island or south Florida I would be concerned. Then again the models now have the Orlando area at a 18% for Hurrican force winds. Which seem wierd that a storm could stay that powerful over land for over a day even though it’s samd blast you to death powerful right now. The only thing I ever worry about is losing power. I think Orlando has only gotten Hurrican force winds 3 times in the last 100 years and one of those was because the storm was booking at like over 40 miles an hour. Which is almost unheard of speed for a storm until you get further north like past VA.
Although it crazy all the places that don’t have gas and the storm is 4 days away. Ormond Beach does not have any. I hope Orlando has suppliez other wise I will be working from home. It’s 260 miles from Miami so people really don’t need to prep till Friday.
Jerry had an empty tank. Went out this afternoon and had no trouble filling up. Go figure.
Susan,
I lived in FL for 30 years. 20 on the Space Coast on a barrier island and the last 10 in Palm Beach county on a barrier island. I can’t remember how many hurricanes I’ve gone through. I went through a typhoon in Hong Kong. I was watching the wind speed meter when it was blown off the building at 210 Knots! I saw the devastation. Ships (not boats–ships) washed 25 feet up a hillside by the storm surge. Dozens of big yachts piled like cord wood in a corner of the bay.
When Wilma came, I went inland to a friend’s house in Boca Raton. We walked outside during the eye of the storm and recovered some of the things that had blown. Wilma was a strong Cat 2 when it hit Boca. We had to chainsaw our way out of the driveway, out of the street where he lived and out of the subdivision to get to a main road. Power was out for over a week. there was a whole lot of grilling going on and a block party each night to share the food.
Poincianna is relatively low country and has LOTS of trees. They are going to come down–for sure–many by the roots. Power lines are gong to come down. Remember, most of the emergency power crews are currently in Texas helping here. It’s going to take longer to get power back on. Being relatively low, Poincianna is going to flood. If Irma comes up the middle or west of middle, you are going to get extra strong winds because of the dirty-side effect. That means more damage.
I suggest very strongly, leave. Go up north to Birmingham. Sounds like a long way until you realize that if you go to GA you’re still going to be in the storm and they may have problems too. Here’s the thing: if you stay you may be OK and may be able to help others. You won’t be very effective because of the lack of everything. But, you may not be OK. You may not be OK and may require help. Maybe a lot.
It’s better to leave and come back when you can be more effective in your own situation and also in helping others that weren’t as prudent.
This hurricane is going to get very ugly and the ugly is going to last for weeks. Do yourself a favor and leave.
It’s insane how so much rain has fallen on the East Coast this past spring and summer and how little has fallen on Montana and Idaho and Wyoming.
Some day we’ll be able to manipulate the Jet Stream. I hope. Just push it a little here and there.
Susan,
By the way, don’t forget the critters that are going to be flooded out as well. Gators and snakes where you don’t expect them. And stay away from the floating fire ant balls!
Hm.m.m.m.m.m…. I appreciate your input. So far there has been no input from anywhere that we should evacuate. We have our supplies and our neighbor has a generator. I understand that you speak from years of experience, Pilli, but I think we’ll stay put for now. BTW, are you saying you now live in Texas? Is this the pot calling the kettle black? ;-)
Yikes! The ant ball is a new one! Yeah, there will be gators around, no doubt.
I had ant balls floating all over my flooded lawn in FWB after a hurricane in mid 90s.
People who weathered Andrew said they would never do it again. Fearing for your life from flying debris is worse than wondering how your place is doing.
That beautiful area at end of pier (Margaritaville, beach, shops, pool) will definitely take a hit. Sad. Will watch on ptztv until camera goes down. They posted amazing links to youtube video of St Maarten. I am worried about Half Moon and other islands with horses. The Half Moon horses are turned loose and go to a valley in the center of the island but nothing will protect them from an all day tornado.
@brianclendinen I was here for those same three hurricanes in 2004 and I’m not nearly as relaxed about the potential for this storm as you are. We’re not going to evacuate yet because our local emergency management people aren’t recommending it, but would rather be at @pilli‘s readiness level than to be too blasé and go through what we did in 2004 again. It’s not necessarily Irma, but Jose and Katia that could add to any initial damage and affect even far-from-the-coast central Florida significantly if the winds are blowing our way at the right (wrong!) time.
Our south central Florida region had not received a direct hit from a hurricane since 1964 so in August 2004 we had some basic hurricane supplies in but weren’t particiularly worried. Hurricane Charlie was supposed to go up the gulf coast but with virtually no warning suddenly turned northeast near Punta Gorda and barreled inland to within 15 miles of our location on the highest ridge in central Florida. We headed north with our 5 and 9 year old children last minute when we heard the storm had turned and our home came through the storm well though we had no power for several days,some trees down and possibly the shingles blown around some. Overall, though, we were OK here. We had a rental home at Boca Grande where I spent the next week cleaning where water had leaked in (was without power or water but handled it myself because the damage on our home there wasn’t significant enough to be a priority for the emergency crews.)
My daughter had already started Kindergarten but school was cancelled for a week because of the power outages and schools being used as shelters. We felt blessed, though, because our home was OK. The drive from Boca Grande back to Highlands County through poor rural areas was tragic, though, as I saw the entire contents of many people’s single wide mobile homes piled up along the roadsides, ruined.
No prob, though, because, as we all said, Hurricane Charlie had stopped 15 miles short of us and we were safe because we were so far inland, blah blah blah. Then within a few weeks the Atlantic heated up again and the eye of Hurricane Frances (category 1) came across south Florida andpassed right over us, and to our shock and fatigue was followed not too long afterward by Hurricane Jeanne. We slept in a walk-in closet with the kids during Hurricane Frances and had decided after that experience that we would evacuate if a stronger storm came our way. With Frances we had power outages again, my daughter had to restart and pause kindergarten again, and I confirmed that I really, really would prefer to be in the NC mountains rather than in Florida without power in August/September!
So we evacuated north when Jeanne headed our way (they had paused school for a third time now), and as we drove south again after the storm we had to spend two nights in a hotel in Orlando because Jeanne paused between Orlando and our home town and we couldn’t get back south. The damage to light poles, trees, businesses and homes all the way down is something I’ll never forget.
That experience with the third 2004 hurricane is what makes me much more alert this time around. We had no power or water again for a week because our neighborhood wasn’t a top priority for emergency management, and after a day or two I brought a bar of soap out into our lake which was stirred up and full of debris from the storms and was way too warm to be refreshing, and bathed there. We had no generator so we got used to room temperature veggies, beans, fruits, and Vienna sausages, and one of the finest meals I’ve had in my lifetime was at a local elementary school lunch room which was set up as a Salvation Army soup kitchen. Cold salad and milk and hot soup and we sat in air conditioning to enjoy it. Aaah, it still makes my mouth water to think of that wonderful meal.
@pilli‘s suggestion to leave immediately wouldn’t be a solution for us because the other lesson we learned from Charlie/Frances/Jeanne is to be able to return home quickly if at all possible after evacuation. The third storm peeled back shingles and water leaked down several walls and ruined hardwood floors that were left abandoned for those few key post-hurricane days. With all the blue roofs in this part of the state it took several months and some weeks spent in a hotel to replace all that was damaged in our home, and it was 18 months before we had a new metal roof to replace the damaged shingle one. Very stressful school year for my daughter, and in hindsight I should have pulled her out and started kindergarten again the next year.
So our family is ready this time, not just for Irma, but for Jose and Katia if they somehow come our way in the next few weeks. I’ll never take forcasters’ predictions as completely reliable again because they just aren’t 100% accurate and the winds can and do sometimes change direction unexpectedly.
We are ready to pivot and go where needed very quickly if needed, and especially have to stay vigilant because I’m the closest sibling to my mom, who lives 30 minutes away in an ALF. We learned this afternoon that if she evacuates they are going to Atlanta on a bus with the residents (ack!) which would mean worst case scenario my daughter and I would drive behind the bus with my mom (who refuses to get on the facility bus, which she calls a “jail bus”, even to go to the grocery store.) Moral of the story? Don’t stress but don’t get too cocky about living inland in Florida. When this monster hits our state we don’t have a lot of directions to evacuate so need to stay alert. Good luck to all potentially in Irma (and Jose and Katia’s) path!
Someone posted a tip for those worried about their house….said to put valuable in dishwasher. Said door makes a good seal and it is anchored. Hadn’t thought of this before but makes sense.
Oh, and I got all my Hurricane supplies at Publix and only hit Lowe’s and Walmart for what I couldn’t find there. Publix IS that wonderful a grocery store and has been since I was a kid—they are vigilant about expiration dates on food there and you can walk in to customer service without a receipt a day or a week later and return anything that just isn’t right, no questions asked.
No. I live in New Mexico. We have our weather here too. Mostly very cold in the winter and very hot and dry in the summer.
Oh my gosh, Diane, I had no idea! And yet after all that, you’ve made the decision we’ve made. We are paying close attention, will work with our neighbors to clear lanais and do whatever we need to, to be safe. If we’re hit, it could be very ugly. And yet, to us it makes sense to stay. The latest reports say it could be moving a little east, but as you say, no one really knows for sure.
For those of you in FL, if you are hit and are able to get online, please use this thread to let us know how you are.
Never forget this thread:
http://ricochet.com/436557/divine-help-17-2/
Prayer warriors are standing by.
Whaaaat? Totally not ok with that thing. Gators, snakes, meh… floating balls of fire ants? Nope.
Keep a flamethrower handy.